Well, I've been playing the game for a few hours and as far as I can tell there's NO grabbing or picking up random objects or dragging bodies as such. No biggie actually though... the game is just so awesome it's not as if it matters! In some ways, Skyrim/Oblivion was great because you could grab and move random objects (yes, including bodies), and that's all I was really thinking about in an "ultimate sandbox freeroam game" sort of way. This game is just so great in every other way, especially 1) the typical Rockstar sense of black humour and 2)  the awesome police chases that well, who cares! Brilliant, brilliant game, I love it. Sleeping Dogs is good but absolutely nowhere near as good as this. The attention to detail is incredible, it's a total work of art in every way. Dragging bodies (aka Hitman/Splinter Cell style) would still be nice though... haha!

Well I was going to say, if the cop AI is dumber, then wouldn't it be just like in real life? :D

All joking aside though, I'm hearing great things about exactly this. Being able to hide your car behind a house or bush or under a bridge or something is much better. You're right, before it was always like a cop homing device, or sattelite GPS tracking, or always on drone/helo tracking before the helo even arrives. Line of sight is a brilliant concept, this is definitely one of the better things I'm hearing about V.

One thing that's bothered me in these games though, is how cops suddenly start shooting at you simply for openly carrying a gun. I mean, if it's supposed to be in America, what happened to the 2nd amendement? And how would they know if you wasn't some form of government worker, FBI or plain clothes police anyway? That was always the dumbest thing to me by far. Saying that though, I can see why it's made to be that way in the game; brainwashing the public into thinking guns can't be legally owned. I understand that completely. Even so, it's slightly annoying.

Thanks for the info, very much appreciated! If you don't mind, after you've played it a few hours, could you update us if it's in or not? I didn't preorder but will probably be picking it up next week when I get time, so I guess you'll find out what the real deal is before I do, cheers bro!

Wasn't there an option in Sleeping Dogs where you could grab hold of someone, bundle them up in the trunk and drive off? I'm hearing we can't do that in GTA V... or generally grab hold of people in unarmed combat. Could someone confirm it?

Seems strange if true... I mean it was pretty fun in Red Dead Redemption... I was looking forward to experimenting throwing people off roofs, cliffs and what have you... and now grabbing anything with our hands besides weapons and steering wheels isn't in the game? Or is it?

Anyone remember these shows?

Decisive Battles

Time Commanders

Look at what they have become today... apparently more interested in marketing on twitter and Facebook than actually making great games... so sad. We truly need a rival company, someone else to make epic historic strategy games now.

So, who IS Daniel Starkey? Is he a member of Gamespot? You see, I don't recall ever seeing any reviews by him anywhere else. Or is he.. as I suspect after reading his review.. a fiction... a made up name? A fake name invented by Sega marketing? I think the latter may actually be the case here... what do you think?

To say that Rome II is the "best in the series"? I mean, with Loose Formation and Jeff van Dyck missing... what are you smoking??

Well said sir. Yes, and like it says in my sig, Patrick McGoohan believed that once you start making something appeal to the masses, watering it down, if you will, quality drops through the floor. It's why The Prisoner was such a masterpiece in Television. It didn't appeal to the masses - it had it's own niche "cult" audience. Creative Assembly completely ignored that maxim, forgot all about us history buffs and stategy wargamers, and here are the results. They tried to make it appeal to everybody, and failed miserably.

A shame the original RTW team in Australia wasn't involved in this one...

Yes, well said. Compared to the first Rome Total War, the dumbing-down is frightening, even for Creative Assembly. I don't even rate this as a CA game, the great ones were made by a totally different (GOOD) group of people in Australia.

I think this new CA "team" in the UK were far too busy tweeting on twitter, updating their Facebook accounts and too busy drinking beer down the pub at their "Rally Point" meetings. They forgot about making an actual strategy game.

So, where did all the dev money go? Blessed? Strong? Hawke?? It DIDN'T go to the wonderful Jeff van Dyke...

I just despair... if I was head of CA I would start by sacking Laycock and Lusted and move operations back to Australia to work on Medieval III.

I know there are exceptions... Starcraft II being one I can think of... but on the whole, does anyone else think it's hilarious we don't get Gamespot video reviews for *PC only* releases? Usually, it's just the written article.

Major console/multi platform releases almost always have a video review here.

It's as if Gamespot think console gamers can't read... so they need a video to watch? :D

Well, I have a PS3 too you know Gamespot? And I am allegedly able to read as well as watch video. :D

It wasn't always like this in the past, of course. I mean back in the days when we actually had people like Greg Kasavin and his brilliant PC games reviews...

True words bro, true words. Writing letters of complaint and petitions might sound like good ideas in theory, but in practice, I mean in the real world, you don't write letters to a criminal organization and expect them to file it anywhere else but in the trashcan? Nah, they disrespect us gamers and take us for fools. They won't listen to reason. The only way to make a change is to stop throwing our money at EA until we can nullify the NFL contract. There is a reason EA was voted 'worst company in America', and the whole Madden situation, I tend to think, is a significant slice of that reason? EA Voted 'Worst Company in America' Again

What makes it worse for me is I love and respect John Madden the man. What a travesty... how EA trashed and abused that good gentleman's name, putting it on acradish buggy trash like this... damn, John needs to buy his own name back!